Mission's streak ends at Lincoln

BOYS BASKETBALL

Damin Esper, Special to The Chronicle

Published 4:00 am, Saturday, February 16, 2008

Deend Parker scored 32 points as Lincoln High moved into a tie for first place in the AAA's Lang Division with a 73-66 win Friday over visiting Mission, snapping an 18-game winning streak for The Chronicle's No. 20 team.

The Mustangs (21-9, 14-1) built a 23-point lead early in the fourth quarter before withstanding a furious rally by the Bears (21-4, 14-1).

Parker called the win the best of the season for Lincoln.

"We all played good team defense," he said. "We told ourselves all week that we had to play good team D."

The co-leaders have one game remaining in the regular season - Lincoln plays at Balboa on Tuesday while Mission plays at Jordan. If the teams remain tied, a coin flip will determine who gets the division's top seed in next week's AAA playoffs. The Bears won the first meeting 68-58.

"Our league this year, if you don't come to play, you get knocked off," Lincoln coach Mike Gragnani said. "Our focus is to try to get better tomorrow."

#1 McClymonds-Oakland 73, Fremont-Oakland 71: In the final home game for seniors and retiring coach Dwight Nathaniel, The Chronicle's No. 1 team won at the buzzer for the second time in three games on Damon Powell's second putback of a Quincy Hill miss.

Powell, a 6-foot-5 junior, finished with 18 points, including eight in the final quarter as McClymonds held off a valiant Fremont comeback.

Fremont was led by Powell Lee, who scored 11 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter, including the game-tying three-pointer with 13 seconds left. Josh O'Neil (10 rebounds) and James Allbright finished with 16 points apiece for the Tigers, who are fighting with Skyline for the third and final playoff spot.

With Frank Otis and Powell each picking up their fourth fouls in the third quarter, Fremont outscored McClymonds 21-9 to trim the Warriors' lead to 53-50 entering the fourth quarter.

McClymonds (26-0, 9-0 Oakland Athletic League), which made only 12 of 24 free-throws, opened the fourth quarter with a 9-0 run to stretch its lead to 62-50. But Fremont (16-10, 4-5) put its seven turnovers to start the fourth quarter out of mind and attacked McClymonds' zone defense, fouling out Warriors point guard Will Cherry with 5:23 left.

Though the official score says the Warriors won by two points, a scoring mix-up in the middle of the fourth quarter gave Fremont an extra point.

- Will McCulloch

#4 De La Salle-Concord 46, Pittsburg 32: Jose Rivera had 16 points, all in the first and fourth quarters, and Dominic Martellaro 11 as visiting De La Salle (23-3, 16-0) finished off its Bay Valley Athletic League tenure by limiting Pittsburg to 11 field goals in 48 attempts (23 percent). The Spartans, who move next fall to the East Bay Athletic League, won 45 of their last 46 league games, and this year gave up just 34.2 points per game.

Nasir hit two free throws with 23.2 seconds left to give Hayward a 56-53 lead and, after Castro Valley's Jourdan Demuynck hit one of two free throws to cut it to 56-54, Berry hit two more with 8.9 seconds left for the Farmers' final points.

Demuynck had 27 points and eight rebounds for Castro Valley, which lost Dan Teicher to an ankle injury in the second quarter.

- Scott Strain

Heritage-Brentwood 59, Antioch 57: Jordan Knox (12 points) hit a runner at the buzzer giving Heritage (20-6, 10-6 BVAL), a second-year program, its second big road win of the week. Kyle Golinveaux had 19 and Jimmy Enomoto had 10 for the Patriots, who beat Pittsburg on Tuesday. St. Mary's-bound Tim Williams had 28 for Antioch (18-8, 12-4).

Wallenberg 44, Lowell 43: Kurtis Wong hit a three-pointer from 24 feet at the buzzer to lift the visiting Bulldogs to their first road victory over the Cardinals in school history.

Travis Barabin finished with 14 points and nine rebounds for the Bulldogs (23-4, 13-2 AAA), and Wong added eight points and five assists.

Menlo-Atherton 70, South San Francisco 57: Sam Knapp finished with 16 points and 16 rebounds, and Menlo-Atherton shot 31-for-40 from the free-throw line in a Peninsula Athletic League semifinal victory at Burlingame High.

Menlo-Atherton led by two points at the start of the fourth quarter before outscoring South San Francisco 27-16 to pull away. South San Francisco's Fale Malepeai and Jesse McCowan scored 22 and 19 points, respectively.

Marin Catholic-Kentfield 68, San Marin-Novato 40: Ian Salter, a 6-foot-10 center, scored 21 points and had 19 rebounds as Marin Catholic cruised to a semifinal win in a Marin County Athletic League semifinal at Redwood-Larkspur High.

Marin Catholic (18-10) will meet Branson at 7:30 p.m. tonight at Redwood in the title game.